Arular

Probably the most critically acclaimed new artist of the mid '00s, Maya Arulpragasam is also among its most controversial, in two different ways. Po-faced style purists chide her grab-bag embrace of numerous urban sounds (Brazilian baile funk on "Bucky Done Gun," London grime on "Galang," vigorous neo-electro on "10 Dollar") without having "done her time" in any particular scene (as if pop forms weren't rewired regularly by tinkerers rather than apprentices). The other reason is a lot more serious: Arulpragasam is the daughter of a Sri Lankan political rebel affiliated with the Tamil Tigers, an organization devoted to armed struggle since 1983; they are said to have essentially invented modern suicide bombing. Maya not only doesn't run from this legacy, she devotes a lot of her art (her award-nominated visual work as well as her music) to invoking it: "Like PLO, we don't surrender," she chants in "Sunshowers," for instance. It might not make her a terrorist, but it certainly makes people uneasy.

Despite all of this, or maybe because of it, Arular, Arulpragasam's debut as M.I.A., is one of the most consistently thrilling pop records anyone has made. What's especially impressive about this is that while the album is hardly… read more »